PRETEND YOU'RE MINE

A down-on-her-luck woman agrees to pose as the girlfriend of a member of the Army National Guard who’s about to be called up.

Harper didn’t intend to end up in Benevolence, Maryland, but that’s what happens when you storm out of your apartment post-breakup without your phone or wallet. When she gets off the highway looking for a pay phone to call her college roommate, she sees a man assaulting his girlfriend in a parking lot and quickly intervenes. Luke Garrison, who comes across the scene as the guy is slugging Harper, admires her tenacity; he and his sister, Sophie, offer to help Harper get back on her feet, but first she has to make it through the night without money for a hotel or even gas to put in her car. Luke offers to let Harper stay with him, and—of course—there’s only one bed. Which they share. Though there’s a palpable attraction between them, they behave. The next morning, Sophie comes up with an idea: Why doesn’t Harper pose as Luke’s girlfriend to get his meddling family off his back? She’d only have to do it for a month, till his unit deploys to Afghanistan, and it’ll give her a place to stay while she figures out the next steps for her life. Big feelings abound as angst is piled on top of angst. Between Harper’s repressed desire to be loved while maintaining her independence and Luke’s unaddressed grief, which makes him lash out in truly hurtful ways, there are many moments of emotional whiplash. Everyone here needs therapy, but instead, the main romantic couple defaults to extremely poor communication styles, toxic behavior patterns, and lax boundary setting. A happily-ever-after between Luke and Harper feels like a bad idea for both of them. Even the small-town environment is a downer, with a slew of misogynistic side characters.

An uphill battle.